A to Z 2021 – E is for Esmeralda Slide Park and The Embarcadero

Posted on April 6, 2021 by scr4pl80 (Scrap Lady)

There weren’t too many choices for the letter “E” in San Francisco that I could think of and then I found Esmeralda Slide Park. My GPS led me to the back of the park and while I didn’t see any signs, I did see this little opening.

As I went through the trees, this staircase appeared.

As I got to the top of the steps I saw this little area.

Which turned out to be at the bottom of the slide. The blue bin off to the side holds cardboard pieces if you want to use them to slide down. There was a little girl there with her mom and dad (or grandma and grandpa, I couldn’t tell), so I was trying to take my pictures without invading their privacy.

I climbed the steps on the side of the slide and came to the top of the park. Here were the signs!

On the ground was a compass so you could see where you were. This was added to the park in June of 2017 during a restoration project.

Esmeralda Slide Park was established in the 70’s by a group of volunteers. They work together with the city to keep it maintained. There is a table with benches at the top.

The view from the top of the slide.

If there hadn’t been other people there, I might have taken a slide down myself but I didn’t want to make anyone uncomfortable. Covid strikes again. Also interesting, this is in the Bernal Heights area and the night after I took these pictures I got a notice on my phone from the Citizen app that four people were pepper sprayed in Bernal Heights. It wasn’t near the park but still…

The other “E” is for The Embarcadero, which is a long stretch of road that runs along the piers from Second and King street along the waterfront to Pier 45. It runs under the Bay Bridge, which is a pretty impressive sight.

There is the Embarcadero Center, which is four huge buildings and the Hyatt Regency Hotel. I didn’t realize it until today but during the holidays the edges of the buildings are lit up and it is supposed to make it look like four giant books on a shelf. I’ll have to check that out this year! I’ll report back if it does.

There is also the Embarcadero Station where you can catch both BART and Muni (one of the other ways to get around the city). I didn’t take a lot of pictures because mostly it’s just the road but there are some interesting things along the way, which I may cover in some other letters. Don’t want to give away any surprises, you know?

And there we have “E.” No coloring book pages for this letter. I hope you are enjoying the trip through San Francisco. Have you checked out any of the other participants in the A to Z Challenge yet? I know there are a lot of good ones. I’m trying to make my way through but it is slow going, so forgive me if I haven’t hit yours yet.

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A to Z 2021 – D is for Dragon Gate and Dolores Park

Posted on April 5, 2021 by scr4pl80 (Scrap Lady)

When I was searching for things to fill the letters for my A to Z Challenge this year, I opened Google Maps of San Francisco and searched for a few of the places that I knew of off the top of my head. As I enlarged the map all kinds of things started popping up and one of them was Dragon Gate. I thought that would make a terrific “D.”

Dragon gate is the south facing gate marking the entrance to Chinatown in San Francisco. It was built in 1969 and dedicated in 1970. There are three portals, an east and west portal for pedestrians and then a middle portal for cars. It is one of the most photographed parts of Chinatown and I can see why.

Once again, this was just a drive by but I think you can get the feel of it.

The other “D” I have for today is Dolores Park.

Named after nearby Mission Dolores and sitting on land that was once a Jewish cemetery, Dolores Park is almost 16 acres of open space with lots of beautiful palm trees, 6 tennis courts, a basketball court, a playground and two off-leash dog areas, among other things. The park was bought by the City in 1905 and in 1906 was used as a refugee spot for 1,600 people dislocated after the earthquake. It is also used for rallies and other public gatherings.

  • Mission Dolores

During part of last year, in an effort to encourage social distancing, large 6-foot circles were painted onto the grass so you could continue to enjoy the area but be socially distant. There was no evidence of those circles when I went by today. However, there was a lot of graffiti on the walls surrounding the area, that’s why I didn’t take any pictures of the pathway to the park.

There is a statue of Miguel Hidalgo, the father of Mexican Independence. Unfortunately, someone had painted all over that as well.

It is sad to see things like this. There was a very friendly worker from the Parks and Rec department who was watering the plants around the statue and she said that someone would be coming by to clean it. I was particularly taken by this woman as she had a pleasant thing to say to everyone who passed by her.

As you can tell the coloring page is not finished but I decided I could either color or write the post. Writing the post won! I just took the pictures this morning too! I was marginally prepared for this A to Z. Hope you are enjoying and will come back tomorrow for “E.”

Disclaimer notice. The coloring book pages are from the inserts the San Francisco Chronicle put out and I mentioned them in my theme reveal so you can go to that to get the info about the artists if you are interested. I did the coloring and took the pictures.

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A to Z 2021 – C is for Coit Tower and Cobbs Comedy Club

Posted on April 3, 2021 by scr4pl80 (Scrap Lady)

Today we have the letter “C” in our A to Z excursion and Coit Tower fits the bill. This is another one of those places that I have not explored very well, only having been here twice, once at night when the tower was closed and once during the day for a quick drive by.

  • Pretty close to the drawing isn’t it?

In fact, I didn’t even know until reading about it for this post that you can go inside the tower and see some beautiful murals around the base, which is free to all visitors. Unfortunately, right now it is still closed because of Covid (stupid Covid) but you could also take guided tours when it is open and see the view through the observation deck at the top for a minimal charge.

The tower sits atop Telegraph Hill and some parking is available or you can park at the bottom and walk up the winding path. The views are spectacular, offering a 360 degree vision of the city and the surrounding counties. We just drove by on the day that I took these pictures and unfortunately I didn’t get any of the view from here. Another reason to go back for sure.

Coit Tower was built between 1932 and 1933 and named for Lillie Hitchcock Coit who was the benefactress of the construction. Lillie was an eccentric woman and apparently had a love of firefighters so this tower is dedicated to the volunteer firefighters who died fighting fires in San Francisco. Some think the tower resembles the nozzle on the end of a firehose. Occasionally the city changes the colors of the lights in tribute to different things, such as all orange for when the Giants were winning the World Series or rainbow colors for LGBTQ pride, red, white and blue for 4th of July, red and green at Christmas, etc.

Another “C” is Cobbs Comedy Club. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen the television program “Cash Cab” but it used to be a favorite of ours and when I saw that Ben Bailey, the star of the show, was coming to San Francisco I had to get us tickets. We had never been to Cobbs Comedy Club before but the tickets were very reasonable and we ended up having such a good time that when Mr. Bailey came around again later in the year we went and saw the show again! This time he was standing outside afterward and I was able to get a picture of him with my husband. He is very tall! My hubby is 6 feet. We got his autograph on a DVD too!

Cobbs has been around since 1982 although it was in a different part of the city for a while. A fire caused them to move to their current location on Columbus Avenue. The venue is small, only 400 seats, and it is first come first served so we got there early enough to get good seats all three times. It is a short walk from a parking garage if you can’t find parking in the blocks surrounding it. The prices were very reasonable (at least they were when we went) and they do serve food if you want.

We also saw Rosanne Barr there. She was pretty funny too. Unfortunately, one of the policies is no picture taking so the shots I got were on the sly and not very good. Still, they are enough for me to remember the evening and make some scrapbook pages.

There are a few other “C” things I could have described like Crissy Field and Cable Cars but I made a “rule” for myself that I wouldn’t just take pictures from the internet for the things I was writing about. I mean anyone can Google Cable Cars and come up with some information. I want to be able to talk about the experiences I had and show you what it looked like from my perspective. So if you wanted Cable Cars or Crissy Field, I’m sorry about that.

Okay, that’s all I have. Hope you come back tomorrow for “D.”

Disclaimer notice. The coloring book pages are from the inserts the San Francisco Chronicle put out and I mentioned them in my theme reveal so you can go to that to get the info about the artists if you are interested. I did the coloring. The pictures were taken by me. Thanks to our daughter for driving me around to take pictures for this.

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A to Z 2021 – B is for Bay Bridge and Bart

Posted on April 2, 2021 by scr4pl80 (Scrap Lady)

Welcome back to the A to Z 2021 Blogging challenge. I hope you enjoyed yesterday’s visit to San Francisco. Today we are going to look at some ways to get to and from the City.

There are two bridges that connect San Francisco with the rest of the area. One is more famous than the other and I may talk about that later in the alphabet but today we have the Bay Bridge. It spans the San Francisco Bay to the east and connects with Oakland on the other side. The original bridge was designed by Charles H. Purcell and opened in 1936. It is one of the longest bridges in the United States.

There are two sections of the bridge, separated in the middle by Yerba Buena Island. The west side is a double decker with cars going east on the bottom and west on the top. That portion has been named the Willie L. Brown, Jr. Bridge after former SF Mayor Willie Brown. I never call it anything other than the Bay Bridge.

  • The West (San Francisco) side of the bridge
  • Hard to tell but there are two decks, upper and lower.

The east side used to be the same but you may or may not have heard about a little earthquake we had in 1989 that caused a section of the top of the bridge to fall on the bottom. The bridge was closed for a month but it took 11 years and a lot of money to build a new section. It was quite interesting to see the construction going on during those years, but the most interesting was when the new section was finally completed and the old section was taken down. There is a video of some of that here.

Going under the span. It does’t look wide enough to hold cars does it?

In 2013 lights were installed on the bridge, intended to be for a short time only to commemorate the 75th year of the bridge but the project was so well received that it has continued. There are about 25,000 LED lights on the span and they go on and off in patterns selected by random number generator so they are always different. Also interesting is that you cannot really see the lights when you are driving across so as not to cause a distraction. Because of the unique system, the cost of operating the lights is only about $15 to $30 a night. Currently there is a program through the “Shine It Forward: The Bay Lights project” where for $100 you can actually dedicate one of the lights to someone and it will be yours forever. How romantic would that be for a Valentine’s Day or Anniversary gift? I mean, $100 is about what you pay for a bunch of roses that die anyway, right?


Here is a view of the San Francisco shoreline as seen coming from Oakland to SF. The pictures were taken several years apart because as you can see the buildings have changed. Sorry for the blurriness but it’s not easy taking pictures out the car window or even from a boat!

  • A view of the San Francisco skyline as seen from the Bay Bridge.
  • And from a boat in the Bay several years later.

B is also for BART which stands for Bay Area Rapid Transit and is one of the ways to navigate through San Francisco. It runs from Millbrae in the southwest and connects to San Francisco International Airport and then goes through San Francisco and under the Bay to the other side north, east and south.

We use it quite often (or did before Covid) to go to San Francisco to see shows or over to Oakland to see concerts. The San Bruno Station is quite close to our house so technically we could walk there but we usually drive since we’d be coming home late at night. There are 8 stops in San Francisco, making it really easy to get to different parts of the City. It is reasonably priced too, especially considering what it costs to park in SF or in Oakland. It is a little scary knowing you are going under the bay in a tube and sometimes the speed makes my ears pop.

On Bart on the way to see Adele!

They have been starting to remodel some of the trains and repair some of the stations. I haven’t been on a trip since the pandemic but the website lists all the different measures they are taking to make it safer for everyone. I remember taking my first ride in 1982 when I went to my first real concert, Day on the Green in Oakland.

That’s it for “B” I guess. What do you think of those lights? Come back tomorrow for “C.” Any guesses?

Disclaimer notice. The coloring book pages are from the inserts the San Francisco Chronicle put out and I mentioned them in my theme reveal so you can go to that to get the info about the artists if you are interested. I did the coloring and all the picture taking.

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A to Z 2021 – A is for Alcatraz and Alamo Square

Posted on April 1, 2021 by scr4pl80 (Scrap Lady)

We are off to the races here in the 2021 edition of the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. As I stated in my theme reveal, my focus this year is on San Francisco, the City By the Bay. There are a ton of facts on Wikipedia if you want to know the complete history but I’m not going to go into all of that here. Instead I’m going to try to showcase a few of the more famous places and also some out of the way places that even I had no idea existed. Some of the letters will include a coloring page from one of the coloring books I got in the San Francisco Chronicle, some will not. All the pictures are ones that I have taken myself. It was not that easy to get something for every letter. Most places start with San Francisco… It was fun tracking down these spots once I found them. Even though I have lived within 10 miles of the City my entire life, so much of it is new to me. I hope you enjoy the journey.

First up is Alcatraz Island. I only know that it was a federal prison but apparently in the beginning it was used as a lighthouse, a fort, a military prison and in 1969 it was held for a year and a half by Native American activists protesting against the disbanding of Native American tribes and taking their land.

These pictures were taken as we went past while on a boat trip with some friends.

While in use as a federal prison, the likes of Al Capone, George “Machine Gun” Kelly, Bumpy Johnson and Robert Franklin Stroud (known as “The Birdman of Alcatraz” were held there. They claim that no prisoner ever escaped from the island although many tried. It really is possible to swim from the island to the shore and there is an Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon that people can compete in, swimming the 1.5 miles to shore. No thanks! That water is COLD.

There have been several movies written about Alcatraz such as “Alcatraz,” “Escape From Alcatraz,” “The Rock,” and “Birdman of Alcatraz.”

More pictures from the boat. You can see the ferry dropping off people for a tour.

In 1986 Alcatraz was dedicated as a Historical Landmark and prior to COVID you could take a tour of the island. They were stopped for a while but as I was getting some of the background info for this post I read that they were going to open up again as of March 15. I have never done the tour and I think it would be pretty neat so it is going on my list. Fortunately I can get the senior discount now too!

“A” also stands for Alamo Square. Alamo Square is one of the residential neighborhoods in San Francisco. There is a park in the square and from that park you can see the famous “Painted Ladies” which are the Victorian houses that are in the opening credits of the TV show, “Full House.”

There are interesting houses all around the park and a big lawn area to have a picnic and play area for the kids.

When I went, there were a lot of people wandering about and I overheard one group say, “So those are the Full House houses, right?” It is definitely an interesting spot to see. Actually, I think the house that they lived in for the show was on a different street, but these were the ones in the opening scenes. I wonder what it would be like to live in a house where people are always taking pictures of it?

So, what do you think? How’s that for a start? Do you remember the show “Full House?” Interested in taking a trip to Alcatraz Island? Ready for “B?”

Disclaimer notice. The coloring book pages are from the inserts the San Francisco Chronicle put out and I mentioned them in my theme reveal so you can go to that to get the info about the artists if you are interested. I did the coloring. Special thanks to my husband who took me in to the City and drove around the block while I got out to take the photos. Parking is not always the easiest and we had a lot of places to see.

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March Madness – 2021 5 Questions

Posted on March 19, 2021 by scr4pl80 (Scrap Lady)

Our blogging friend Ally, prompts us to answer the five following questions as part of her acceptance of the Outstanding Blogger Award, of which she is truly deserving.

Q1 ā€“Ā Whatā€™s your favorite movie? Too many. Hitchcock’s “Rear Window” jumped in my head.

Q2 ā€“Ā When trying to buy shoes, whatā€™s your biggest problem? Trying to buy shoes is my problem. For some reason I have never liked that experience. Interesting, because as a Pisces, feet are supposed to be my body part.

My Unicorn slippers. Sadly, wore them out!

Q3 ā€“Ā Ice cream cone or cupcake? Cupcake definitely but actually just the frosting not the cake.

Q4 ā€“Ā Whatā€™s one good thing you have learned about yourself during this pandemic? I can most definitely handle being alone. While I miss dinners with a few friends and concerts where I can blend in with the crowd, I truly can occupy my time and be perfectly content in my own little world.

Part of my world. I need to take some new pictures of the studio.

Q5 ā€“Ā Any eccentric people in your family? Discuss. Eccentric is a fun word. I’d have to say my Auntie Annie was eccentric, but maybe she was just outgoing and to my quiet self that makes her eccentric. I know that she was fun to be around. She took me to Reno when I turned 21 so that I could gamble legally for the first time. We had a great trip. She was one of those people who started conversations with anyone and everyone and always knew the bartender! She and my mom are twins and total opposites. Annie worked as a waitress all her life and always had the most interesting stories to tell. This picture doesn’t really do her justice, but you can tell by the gold jacket she wasn’t afraid to stand out in a crowd.

Auntie Annie

I, like Ally, don’t feel comfortable trying to single out bloggers for awards since I feel that anyone who reads my drivel is outstanding and I don’t want to put undue pressure on folks to respond so I will just post my five questions here and if you are so inclined, feel free to answer them in the comments or on your own blogs. My questions are:

  • What is your favorite quote. I collect them.
  • If money were no object where would you go?
  • How many places have you lived or jobs have you held?
  • Have you tried meditation? Did it help you?
  • Who would you like to meet (living or dead) for dinner?

There you go. Thanks again, Ally, for giving me something to blog about today. Now I’m off to take pictures of more dolls for sale.

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March Madness – 2021

Posted on March 18, 2021 by scr4pl80 (Scrap Lady)

Last month I shared my new crafty website, Janetsmiles.com that I will be using to augment my Etsy shop. I am excited to share now that I have added a blog page to that website so that I can showcase things I am working on and new items for sale. With the website I can list some things that I may not have in the Etsy store and I’ve set up two new categories, Vintage Dolls and Other Collectibles.

Meet “Twinkles” the clown
“Jeffrey” who is learning how to tie his shoes
The beautiful Snow Queen
“Little Stevie” playing with the toilet paper

We acquired a collection of porcelain dolls from the 1990s that are for the most part brand new in the box. I have only taken them out to take the pictures. They still have the protective coverings on them to avoid scratching. Some of the boxes look a little worn but the dolls are in great shape. They are from the Danbury Mint and Ashton Drake companies among others. We have probably close to 100 so it will take me a while to photograph and document them all but if you are into collecting dolls, this will be the place to go! Right now I have six items listed but I have another 10 to go in this first batch, including a Shirley Temple doll dressed in her role as Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.

Please feel free to share this info with anyone you may know who likes to collect dolls. Also coming soon to the “Other Collectibles” category will be some vintage tins and perhaps even some baseball cards and Budweiser beer steins! The blog is here and there is a spot to sign up for notification of new posts. You know me though, I promise not to overwhelm your inboxes!

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March Madness – 2021 – Stream of Consciousness Saturday

Posted on March 13, 2021 by scr4pl80 (Scrap Lady)

So a month ago John gave us the opportunity to put someone “in the corner” for something that we consider offensive. My choice was the toilet paper companies for making all of the rolls MEGA sized.

It amazes me sometimes that people actually read my little missives and even more astounding is that you take the time to comment! I must say I really appreciate it. It was especially helpful with that post. J. Lennie Dorner, one of the Captains on the A to Z excursion, commented that Charmin was offering extenders for the toilet roll holders. I flippantly commented that I wasn’t going to pay for additional equipment, I was just going to leave it on the sink.

However, I did take the time to follow the link he so graciously provided and what do you know, the extenders are free, one to a customer! I decided that free was definitely worth it so I sent in my request. I got my extender today AND IT WORKS!

And it didn’t even take months to get. I know it has only been a week or two at the most. So, if you are having an issue with the massive toilet paper rolls, follow this link to get your freebie.

Thanks to Linda for her #SoCS prompt of day/week/month/year, to J. Lennie for leaving me that comment and to all of you who so kindly follow my rambling!

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A to Z 2021 Theme Reveal

Posted on March 8, 2021 by scr4pl80 (Scrap Lady)

So excited to be joining the Blogging from A to Z Challenge again this year. It will be my 6th one! In years past I have done a combination of scrapbooking and concerts, both things I know and love. I was wondering what to do for this year given that we did not go to any concerts last year and, while we have been to enough shows that I probably could have done another 26 scrapbooking concert adventures, it is getting to be a stretch to find either an artist or a song title to match the letters. Also, I don’t have an outside job like I did when I worked at Michael’s to use for ideas.

And then I wrote a blog post about how I was now driving my son to San Francisco everyday and that even though I’ve lived in the Bay Area all my life I was finding things I had never seen before. One of our A to Z captains, J. Lennie Dorner, happened to leave a comment that it would be a good idea for an A to Z. And then I remembered that our newspaper, The San Francisco Chronicle, had included a couple of coloring book inserts to the Sunday Edition.

These are the two books with the artists who drew the pictures.

At first I thought I’d just use the books, color the pictures and call it done but then I had the idea to include some of my own pictures from the places I had been like the Golden Gate Bridge. A few of the letters in the coloring books showcased places that were outside of San Francisco and while I had also been to some of those spots, I thought it would be more fun to stick to San Francisco alone.

I love these pages to color and wouldn’t mind seeing Big Sur, but with Covid and the time factor, it is not realistic.

It took some research but I think I managed to get all the letters covered. So now my task is to actually go to these locations, take more pictures and write a little of the history. Since I’ve gotten both doses of the vaccine, I feel a little better about going out in public and visiting the spots I’ve chosen. It also depends on how much typing I get because that has to come first.

I hope that you will come along on this adventure in San Francisco with me. And if you are doing the A to Z this year, let me know so I can make sure to follow you too!

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Fumbling through February – 2021 Go Stand In The Corner!

Posted on February 17, 2021 by scr4pl80 (Scrap Lady)

Our friend John gives us an opportunity each month to send someone in the corner to take a time out. Last month I missed it but this month I remembered the beef I have with toilet paper so I’m sending all TP manufacturers to Stand In The Corner!

Everyone knows of the toilet paper shortage we’ve been through with the pandemic. Photos of toilet paper packages floated through the internet. I was so excited to score both toilet paper and paper towels in one trip.

I don’t want to seem ungrateful but I really don’t understand why all the toilet paper companies have to make the rolls be so large. MEGA size says 4 regular rolls packed into one. I am pretty sure that I am not alone in the fact that our toilet paper holders are not deep enough to accommodate the extra width of these things. Our house was built in 1955 and even the bathroom that we remodeled a couple of years ago, while it has a more modern holder, still doesn’t lend itself easily to this size.

My husband went to Staples the other day and they have some regular sized rolls so he got a pack. Look at the difference!

And I don’t even know how to figure out the prices because the ones from Staples were $15 for 24 of what they call double rolls while the Charmin from Safeway (not the one pictured) was 12 MEGA for $18 but they don’t really look four times as big. And most of the stores that I have been in don’t even seem to offer a choice anymore. It is either the MEGA or nothing! It also doesn’t take into account my aggravation factor when I have to put the roll of toilet paper on the sink until we use enough of it so it will fit in the holder.

Therefore, I wish to make the toilet paper companies “Stand in the Corner” until they go back to at least offering a choice of sizes! Thanks John, I feel much better now.

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